


Again, A Circle

by orphan_account



Category: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Castle intrigue, Homoeroticism, Jealousy, M/M, Multi, Rival Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 05:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13047609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Carmilla waits, but Death can wait too.





	Again, A Circle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MarsDragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsDragon/gifts).



She waits there, under the leaking pipes, where the water pools beneath her slippers. Not glass ones, mind you; she has no need of fairy tales. She's not quite as old as time, but her companion is. It finishes the preparations for this area, tucking a card into the armour of an Ice Knight, before sending it off to greet the newest invader. 

"Is it a fair fight, then?" she asks, idly, her arms crossed over billowing fabric, if only to break the silence of _waiting_. 

Death turns its head towards her, as seamlessly as a snake. Hardly what you'd expect from a skeleton. "Yes, as per the rules of the castle."

"He'd expect nothing less," she replies, thinking of her master, their master, as he awaits the full moon. Behind closed eyes, eyes that have not seen daylight for nearly two centuries, she imagines him there, cloaked in night as the moon ascended behind the whispering oaks and leafless birches. He'd call her castle home, when he tasted the blood of that old holy fool--and the vampire hunter as well. The boy might not know it, rushing through the endless staircases and the torn hallways, a bloody whip coiled tight, but he is as much part of the ritual as any of them are.  

Perhaps even more. 

He's part of their circle, less tangible than the moon perhaps, but no less. 

(A vampire hunter needs a vampire to fight, after all. Otherwise, he's merely a lad from the village with a wandering mind and a penchant for quests.)

She searches the castle for the boy's companion, the one with the dark thoughts in his heart. She pulls at the threads spun throughout the castle, until she find him pacing through the opened machinery tower. He throws himself past the castle inhabitants with a reckless violence, dust collecting at his boot heels. He doesn't understand that voice that tugs at his heart and whispers that Nathan is corrupted--feckless, arrogant, foolhardly!--is only her own. She spreads that weakness in his heart until it runs, like fissures in the earth, deep within him. 

It's easy, all too easy, especially when she delves into another's mind. It's one of the few perks she has as a vampire, besides conditional immortality and fashionable castle interiors. And for a moments, his thoughts belongs to her, and her limbs tremble with exertion and sudden energy, as she peers into his mind, as his emotions spill over into her. The white-hot humiliation, as Nathan catches him thrown on his back among the broken stained glass, sore and beaten by the monster there. She wonders which one, and fishing for its name, finds her answer-- Adramelech. 

She returns to the boy, to catch a glimpse of the newest hunter's fighting style, but there's nothing, save for the agonized intakes of breath and soft curses, as Hugh gathers himself to his feet, feebly grasping at his broken flesh. That's a pity; she was hoping he'd last a little longer that that. He might have trained alongside Nathan, but he's not his equal. She smiles a little, a hard, self-satisfied smile, as she amplifies that thought. Then Nathan returns, fresh from the battle, eyes bright, color in his cheeks and blood on his forehead, as he offers a hand to Hugh. 

(She's sorry to see Adramelech gone. 

It was a new soul, and a formidable one at that, but the ritual goes on, and there's no time to grieve.)

The reunion, however, goes even better than Carmilla had hoped for. 

"Damn! Who asked you for help!" Hugh nearly spits, to the other boy's confusion.

It's delicious to watch Hugh, huddled in his shame and jealousy and pain, tear into Nathan with his baseless accusations. She adds one more--the whip. "Don't think you defeated it! It was the power of that whip!" Another sharp intake of breath against the pain,  another stab of something wordless in his chest, before Hugh runs off, pushing his body well past its limits. It's not until  long after Hugh has left Nathan's sight that she can untangle that wordless feeling of his: rage and confusion and _desire_ , all tangled together by the terror of the realization that he is being irrational.   

She pulls away from the scene, in a dizzy rush, until she's back in the faintly misty, industrial part of the castle again. "All is going to plan," she announces, breathlessly.  

 Death only moves silently in the gathering water. "Don't underestimate him."

Her smile does not reach her eyes. "It's my castle. My home. He cannot win here." She brushes some imagery dirt off her voluminous dress, cut high to show off the paleness of her upper thigh. "He will not."

"I've seen more Belmonts win, than not," Death replies curtly. "He has their blood in his veins."

"You're just bitter that I rose to the occasion." She smiles again, a thin, cruel smile. "Afraid I might surpass you? How that must hurt, to see one succeed where you, yourself, have not."

Death stiffens at the insult. "You're confident."

"I'm right." She brushes a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Soon, chaos will reign in the hearts of man." Her eyes turn upward, almost reverently, to where Dracula stands. "And we will have the master to guide us to that paradise."

 _Chaos_ , she nearly repeats, savouring the movements of the word on her tongue, and as she does, she misses the long, calculating stare Death gives her.

Soon, it would be her turn.  

**Author's Note:**

> Castle intrigue is kinda my thing, and so when I saw this prompt, I was really looking forward to writing about it! Circle of the Moon is such an underrated game, what with the homoerotic tension between Hugh and Nathan, and the appearance of Carmilla, who is one of my faves. 
> 
> Hugh's dialogue is taken from the game, for authenticity. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! Feedback is loved.


End file.
